A series of ''Franchise/StarWars'' flight simulators based on parts of the ComicBook/XWingSeries.

In 1996, at about the same time that the first novel of the ''X-Wing'' series was coming out, Creator/{{LucasArts}} decided to make a space combat game, similar to the Hoth level in ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire''. Factor 5, the company they contracted, wanted to make games that let people play though action scenes from the films. At that time, [=LucasFilm=] was not comfortable with video games drawing directly from the films. Then someone looked at the ''Rogue Squadron'' comics and realized that they could use similar settings, putting characters from the films into new missions. A series of three shooter games called ''[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Rogue_Squadron Rogue Squadron]]'' (followed by ''Rogue Leader'' and ''Rebel Strike'') kicked off in 1998. The first game is set between Episodes IV and V, but several missions make use of events in the expanded universe, like the [[ComicBook/DarkEmpire Emperor's rebirth]]; the next two games were set between and during points of the movies.

The second game is widely recognized as the best -- for instance, they got the actor who played Wedge Antilles to voice him -- and the third is usually considered to be the weakest largely due to incorporating ground missions that had iffy controls (though it also has [[EmbeddedPrecursor the second game included in it]], playable in a new co-op mode) - however, depending on how important multiplayer is to you (the third one is the only one with such a feature).

To tie in with ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', a cheat code was hidden in ''Rogue Squadron'' which allowed you to unlock a [[CoolShip Naboo Starfighter]] for play. Factor 5 later released ''Star Wars Episode I: Battle For Naboo'', which was very much in the vein of the Rogue Squadron series (albeit with new ground based vehicles as well as the flight combat), and was equally well received and successful.

Not to be confused with ''VideoGame/XWing'' and ''VideoGame/TIEFighter''.

After releasing the three games, Factor 5 went on to make ''VideoGame/{{Lair}}''. Reportedly they were [[CreatorBacklash sick of the series]]. Unfortunately, it didn't work out so well and ''Lair'' was critically and commercially panned, eventually leading to the closure of the studio.----!!This series provides examples of:* AdaptationalWimp: The World Devastators in the first ''Rogue Squadron'' are significantly weaker than how they were portrayed in ''Dark Empire''. For starters, in the original source material of the mission, the World Devastators required a literal DeusExMachina to take down (courtesy of R2-D2 uploading the shutdown codes), whereas in this game, you had to take down the shields, and also shoot out two of its "legs" thus forcing it to crash in the water.* ArcVillain: Moff Seerdon serves as the antagonist for the third chapter of the first game. You confront him at the end of the last mission.* ArtificialStupidity: In ''Rebel Strike'' there's a mission where you fight a squad of TIE Hunters inside a giant spherical force field. If you touch the force field, you will die. The TIE Hunter pilots didn't seem to get that memo.** The enemies in ''Rebel Strike'' will fly headlong at you when they attack, making for extremely easy shots as they basically fly into your crosshairs. In fairness, this was likely done to fix the frustrations in ''Rogue Leader'' where enemies would ''constantly'' fly behind you and tail you incessantly and there wasn't much you could do about it.** Darth Bob the Suicidal TIE Fighter Pilot: the anonymous TIE Fighter who will crash into you during the Battle of Endor in ''Rogue Leader.'' Bob may be a subversion; the AI doesn't seem to be programmed to run into you, it's just that there are so many fighters in the level that it's difficult to foresee or avoid collisions.* AscendedExtra: ''Battle for Naboo'' focuses on Lt. Gavyn Sykes, A.K.A. Bravo Six, who only appeared in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' for little more than a few seconds as one of the pilots that was sent to attack the Droid Control Ship.** This also applies to the Naboo Starfighter; in the first game, it was an well hidden bonus ship that needed a double code to unlock. In ''Battle for Naboo'', you acquire the ship midway through the game as your default star ship.* BattleshipRaid: Various bosses in ''Rogue Leader'' and ''Rebel Strike''.* BrokenRecord: A bug on the ''Rebel Strike'' version of "Battle of Endor" causes Lando's "WE GOTTA BUY MORE TIME" clip to [[MostAnnoyingSound play ad nauseum]].* {{Beam Spam}}: The Star Destroyers in ''Rogue Leader'', Definitely. Any direction that you approach will send a wave of deadly homing lasers towards your crafts central axis, Barrel rolls wont save you from the endless waves of TIE Fighters on your back either. Fans of this trope (or former players) should remember the Level ''Razor Rendezvous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAvYQzMYNbA]]'' fondly for this. * BossOnlyLevel: "Razor Rendezvous". You in a B-Wing versus a Star Destroyer.* CallBack: During the first game's "Defection on Corellia" mission, Han Solo unexpectedly arrives in the Millennium Falcon, and saves a Rebel pilot from TIE bombers in a manner similar to when he saved Luke at [[Film/ANewHope the Battle of Yavin]]. For bonus points, he even shouts "Yee-haw!" as he shoots the bombers down.* ContinueYourMissionDammit* CoresAndTurretsBoss: The Star Destroyers and World Devastators.* DavidVersusGoliath: '''Rogue Leader''' has you, in a star fighter, vs a Star Destroyer.* DistantFinale: The Battle of Calamari in the first game, which is set during the ''DarkEmpire'' ExpandedUniverse saga.* DualBoss: The second part of "Battle of Endor" pits you against TWO Star Destroyers which are side-by-side. Enjoy double the BeamSpam.* DVDCommentary: While not on DVD, Battle for Naboo was one of, if not the very first video game to have audio commentaries. On a ''cartridge'', no less.* DecoyProtagonist: ''Rogue Leader'' switches from having you play as Luke to having you play as Wedge fairly early on.* DelayingAction: "Revenge of the Empire" in ''Rebel Strike'' consists of taking out Imperial reinforcements to buy more time for the evacuation of Yavin IV.* DoomedByCanon: In the first one, two of your allies are Dak Ralter and Zev Senesca both of whom die in the [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack battle of Hoth.]] * EarlyBirdCameo: The [[{{ThePhantomMenace}} Naboo Starfighter]] was an unlockable in Rogue Squadron.** Wholly unintentional, but the Easter Egg AT-ST demo level from Rogue Squadron before the AT-ST levels in Rebel Strike.* EasterEgg: The original Rogue Squadron has a secret code which allows you to play a level as an AT-ST. It serves no purpose, it's self contained and gains you nothing, but hey, [[RuleOfFun you get to ride an AT-ST and blow stuff up]], so who's complaining?** All three of the original Atari Star Wars arcade games are included on ''Rebel Strike'' as extras.** The flying Buick (yes, a real Buick car) from Rogue Leader. There's also a cheat code to replace the V-wing with it in the first game. It's a development team in-joke.* EscortMission: A few. One of these in the first game requires you to trip up three AT-[=ATs=].** [[TheLoad The medical frigate captain]] in the second game. [[MostAnnoyingSound "Red Leader, this is the frigate Redemption! We're under attack!"]] [[CriticalAnnoyance "We've got to protect the frigate at all costs!" "Red Leader, we can't take much more!" "That frigate's not gonna last much longer!" "Red leader, WHERE ARE YOU?!"]]* EvilBrit: Like in the movies, most of the Imperial officers have a British accent. The first game has a few exceptions, however, in that both [[TheLancer Wedge]] and [[HeelFaceTurn Kasan]] have the accent but are on the heroes' side (though Wedge does not have a British accent in the later games). [[spoiler: In the third game, Sarkli also has a British accent, which makes his later defection to the Empire rather predictable to GenreSavvy players.]]* EvilCounterpart: ''Rebel Strike'' introduces a new Imperial fighter called the TIE Hunter, which has folding S-Foil wings and proton torpedoes that make it strongly resemble an Imperial version of the X-Wing. The craft's description in-game even directly references the X-Wing. * FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Sarkli from Rebel Strike]]** MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: [[spoiler: Sarkli's reasons for defecting to the Empire was due to not being recognized enough by his compatriots for his efforts in aiding the Rebellion.]]* FragileSpeedster: The A-Wing, the TIE Fighter and TIE Interceptor, The V-Wing, and the Buick. Very fast, quite maneuverable, but weak shields.* HeelFaceTurn: Kasan Moore in the first game. Also Tycho Celchu in the third game.** DefectorFromDecadence: The reason why Kasan Moore and Tycho Celchu defected to the Rebellion in the first and third game, respectively. They're both [[EarthShatteringKaboom Alderaanian]].* KungFuProofMook: [[HumongousMecha AT-ATs]] in ''Rogue Leader''. Not only are they immune to primary weapons, but also secondary ones (even the Y-Wing's bombs). The only weapon way to stop them is lassoing their legs with the Snow Speeder's tow cable.* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Averted with ''Rogue Leader'' (except with AT-ATs which never seem to actually be aiming at the player anyways), a lot of the enemy's shooting is so accurate that the player has no way of dodging it. * ItsAWonderfulFailure:** Fail to shoot torpedoes into the Death Star's exhaust port in "Death Star Attack" in ''Rogue Leader'' and Yavin 4 will [[EarthShatteringKaboom fall to the same fate that Alderaan did]].*** Likewise in "Triumph of the Empire", fail to destroy the Rebel fighters in time and the Death Star you're on blows up.** Also in ''Rogue Leader'': Fall too far behind in "Strike at the Core" and whoever you're accompanying blows up from enemy fire for a NonstandardGameOver.** Another spectacular failure cinematic is failing to finish the "Revenge of the Empire" mission in ''Rogue Leader'': Vader gets pissed and shoots down his lieutenant.** If you take too long on "Prisoners of Maw", then the Star Destroyer patrol the prisoners warned you was on its way back earlier will return (though you're only told the ship is back, you don't actually see it) and Wedge is forced to retreat and leave the prisoners to their fate.* KillerApp: ''Rogue Leader'' was released at the launch of the Gamecube, and its amazing visuals and gameplay led it to outsell even Nintendo games in some markets.* MarathonLevel: The Endurance mission in ''Rogue Leader'', which has you facing 100 waves of TIE fighters and interceptors, along with the occasional shuttle for the breather waves. To give an idea of how ludicrously long it is, the minimum time requirement for a gold medal is three hours.** "Prisoners of the Maw" can drag as well, especially because you're flying the second-slowest fighter, the Y-Wing.* {{Midquel}}: Segments of ''Rogue Leader'' and ''Rebel Strike'' serve to bridge events of the series not covered by the movies--for example, the first level of ''Rebel Strike'' "Revenge of the Empire" takes place ''immediately'' after the destruction of the Death Star (or rather, the most intense consequence of the immediate invasion from the Empire), in which Luke has to help with the evacuation of the rebel fleet as the empire invades Yavin IV. An alternate point of view version where you play as Vader destroying Rebel ships popped up earlier in ''Rogue Leader'' as an unlockable.* MightyGlacier: The B-Wing, the Y-Wing, Darth Vader's TIE Advanced, the Lambda-class shuttle, and ''Slave 1''. All pretty slow, the first three have powerful shields and can take a beating, but the last two are rather flimsy and challenging to use effectively (though ''Slave 1'' comes equipped with [[MacrossMissileMassacre cluster missiles, which can be upgraded into homing cluster missiles)]].* MusicalNod: Both ''Rogue Leader'' and ''Rebel Strike'' have a reprise of the song played during the Jade Moon mission in the first game.* LampshadeHanging + TakeThatPlayer: The Infinite Lives cheat code in the first game is [[spoiler: IGIVEUP]].** ''Battle for Naboo'' takes it one step further; Its passcode for unlimited lives is [[spoiler: PATHETIC]].* LethalLavaLand: Sullust, in the first game.* LogoJoke:** ''Rogue Squadron'' begins with the {{Nintendo 64}} logo being destroyed by a TIE fighter.** ''Battle For Naboo'' features the {{Nintendo 64}} logo [[DeathFromAbove falling on top]] of Jar Jar Binks.** ''Rogue Squadron II'' starts off with a platoon of Stormtroopers dancing to the Mos Eisley Cantina theme while flinging orange glowsticks--which then pans out far off to reveal the Lucasarts logo.** ''Rogue Squadron III'' has the Lucasarts logo shaking its leg to the Disco Star Wars theme--which pans out to reveal the logo is planted on Darth Vader's armor.* LostInTransmission: Wedge Antilles' SOS comm link ends in static as he is being shot down by an ambush of TIE Interceptors and captured shortly thereafter.* NintendoHard: ''Rogue Leader'' is tough enough just trying to beat the game-but just TRY and get all of the medals, and you are in for absolute hell. Especially Endurance in ''Rogue Leader'' & ''Rebel Strike''.** In fact, ''Rogue Leader'' and ''Rebel Strike'' have a scaling difficulty based on how many medals you have on that file. This becomes a problem if you're returning to the game for the first time in a long while and are rusty as your opponent's AI will be set to deal with someone who was chain running the game for medals at the peak of their ability.** The original was no slouch either in terms of difficulty: it had several escort missions where the craft you had to escort seemed to be made of paper.* NonStandardGameOver: In the first game, if the player shoots down too many escorts or friendlies, Rieekan will contact Luke to return to base so he could "discuss [Skywalker's]... ''tactics''... in private."* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: In "Triumph of the Empire", where you play as Darth Vader and thwart the Death Star's destruction in the Battle of Yavin, you never get to see Yavin 4 blow up.* OldSchoolDogfight: It's a StarWars game about flying around fighters, so of course.* PlayableMenu: The hangars in ''Rogue Leader''.* PowerUpLetdown: In all three games you can upgrade proton torpedoes and concussion missiles to have homing capability- very useful, but locking on takes time, it prioritizes smaller targets first (even if there's a Star Destroyer between you and it) making it near impossible to target shield domes, and there's no way to turn it off. You can get around it by quickly tapping B twice, which immediately launches a non-homing torpedo/missile.* ReplayMode: The original game for Nintendo 64 has a cheat you can enter to replay all the game's cutscenes in order. A rare instance of a replay feature that doesn't require the cutscenes being watched for the first time.* RocksFallEveryoneDies: Sarkli deliberately invokes this trope on some Scout Troopers in "Defiance on Datooine" by using his blaster to cause a rockslide.* ScriptBreaking: In "Battle of Endor", you can turn around right as the mission begins to summon the massive swarms of TIE Interceptors, instead of following the movie faithfully and only turning around when ordered to.* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''Battle for Naboo'' is significantly easier than the preceding ''Rogue Squadron'' (mostly due to fewer difficult escort missions) and ''Rebel Strike'' is significantly easier than the preceding ''Rogue Leader'' (mostly due to regenerating secondary weapons and several on-foot missions that are easier than flying levels).* ShoutOut: In Rogue Leader, the Death Star trench isn't barren like in the movie-it's loaded with lots of blocks which you have to swerve in and out of. This is a homage to the original Atari Star Wars arcade game.** Each game has a Hoth level as homage to the movies and the ''ShadowsOfTheEmpire'' mission that spawned the trilogy.** One entire level of ''Rebel Strike'' takes place on [[AttackOfTheClones Geonosis]], in which Wedge crash lands on the now abandoned planet, and has to fight his way through a legion of reactivated, decades old battle droids. Wedge gets to escape by reactivating Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter--which is equipped with [[NoKillLikeOverkill Seismic Charges.]]** The craft descriptions of the Slave 1 and Vader's TIE Advanced are word-for-word exactly their descriptions from ''Star Wars: Behind the Magic.''* SpaceIsAnOcean: Star Destroyers literally sink when beaten. This is usually justified by gravity, most notably one in which the very next mission is going down to the planet and retrieving the data you wanted from it's ruins.* SpiritualSuccessor: The entire series is one to just the Hoth (and possibly Skyhook) levels from ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire''.* SmugSnake: Moff Kohl Seerdon from the first one. These two quotes sum it up best:-->Rebel scum, this is Moff Seerdon. Your resistance is useless, as you can see. I have blockaded the city, and Chandrila is now mine. You will surrender, or I will shoot you all down.

-->Defecting to the Rebel terrorists shall be your undoing, Kasan. Unfortunate to lose such a fine officer, but the weak will die out to make room for the strong. It is the way of the universe. Farewell, little rodent.* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The planet Taloraan in the first game is pretty much Bespin with a smaller Cloud City. Kasan even comments on how the two planets are similar. The later games feature the real deal.* TheSquadette: Kasan Moor is the only female member of Rogue Squadron in the first game.* TimedMission: Several missions. The most obvious is the Hoth level in ''Rogue Leader'', where you must defeat all enemies before the [[GiantRobot AT-AT]]s reach the rebel base. However, none of the timed missions actually have a timer--you just have to pay attention the battlefield.* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: In ''Rogue Leader'', if you destroy some of the ion turrets on the Star Destroyer in "Razor Rendezvous", those turrets will remain destroyed in the next mission after the same Star Destroyer crash-lands, making it slightly easier to approach.** In Rebel Strike, due to the Jedi Starfighter and Slave I both being unlockable ships and there being a versus mode that includes Geonosis space as a stage, players might consider playing as a Jedi Starfighter and the Slave I, and choosing the Geonosis stage as their battleground to reenact the battle in AttackOfTheClones. The developers had anticipated this possibility, and programmed in the Slave I being in Jango Fett's skin from the movie for specifically that purpose.** Also, the "Imperial Academy Heist" mission (the mission where players have to infiltrate the Imperial Naval Academy at Prefsbelt IV to steal the ''Tydirium'' after the shuttle, according to WordOfGod, somehow managed to end up retrieved by the Empire after its first capture) actually has two different versions depending on the time the Gamecube clock is currently set at.** The first game had a glitch where dying immediately before a cutscene would cause the cutscene to never end. Dying immediately before a cutscene in ''Rogue Leader'' instead gives you a free refill on health.* VideoGameLives: You start each mission with three. When they run out, you get a game-over screen and have to start back from the very beginning of the mission.** If you fail or abort a mission in the first game, it costs you one of your lives.* WhatTheHellPlayer: In the first game, Rieekan will call Luke back to base for what is implied to be strict dressing down if the player shoots down too many escorts/friendlies. See also NonStandardGameOver.* YouHaveFailedMe: Implied to be the fate for the Imperial governor who lost the battle on Taloran:-->'''Wedge:''' I can tell you one thing Luke, the officer on duty is not going to enjoy explaining this damage to the local Moff.-->'''Kasan Moor:''' He may not live to tell about it. Moff Seerdon is notoriously...unforgiving.